Tyrell concert to help kick off 70-piece line of classics at Pennsylvania House
By Brian Carroll -- Furniture Today, February 24, 2003
Greensboro, N.C. — Jazz vocalist Steve Tyrell will give a concert during the spring High Point market to help kick off the New Standards by Steve Tyrell Collection at Pennsylvania House.
After three days with retailers in the Pennsylvania House showroom, Tyrell will sing to about 1,000 invited guests in the High Point Theater on Friday, April 4, backed by his seven-piece band.
"It will be a special evening," said Tom Tilley, president of Pennsylvania House, which is introducing the 70-piece New Standards Collection at market.
Tyrell, one of America's favorite jazz vocalists, is collaborating with Pennsylvania House on a collection of designs inspired by the classics of the 18th and 19th centuries. With 56 pieces in wood and 16 in exclusive upholstery frames, the collection incorporates Georgian, Chippendale, Palladian, Neoclassic, Sheraton and Adam styles. Each piece will be named using the style category that inspired it.
"The idea is that the pieces are authentically inspired, so naming them with the style reference will help the retail salesperson to describe the styling reference the item was created from," Tilley said.
Wood pieces will have three finishes: the New Standards core finish, which is a deep, rubbed brown tone over cherry solids; a cherry finish with swirl mahogany veneers; and an Oriental black created by layering black over red, then accented with gold decoration and worn through by hand.
Pennsylvania House is trying to do in furniture what Tyrell says he has accomplished musically — to make furniture that's "classic but that will appeal to a broad spectrum of people."
"We've had a chance to show it to leadership retailers (and) every single one of them has been enthusiastic and excited about it," Tilley said. "There is a sense that we've lost that 18th century customer, but there's not a good handle on where that customer has gone."
New Standards is targeting that 18th century customer with furniture that is dressy but familiar, he said. "It's the context that is fresh."
The collection will ship beginning in September.
At premarket, starting March 3, Pennsylvania House will show dealers eight pieces from the collection and color renderings of all the other pieces. For market, the company is redecorating its first floor and arranging for Tyrell's music to be piped in and from the showroom, spilling out onto Green and Wrenn streets.
Tyrell's touring band includes the horn section formerly of Blood, Sweat & Tears. He followed up his first album, "A New Standard," with a CD called "Standard Time."
"I don't know anything about retailing," the singer said. "But I know one thing. They play (my) music in the stores where the furniture is being displayed. I can tell you there are literally hundreds of antique stores that play this music. It's helping them sell merchandise. It puts them in the right mood, and it's compatible with good furnishings."
